Timeless Strategies for Thriving in the New Creative Age

Contrary to popular belief, many of the famous artists of the past (like Michelangelo) were not “dirt poor” but were very wealthy thanks to their art endeavors! Goins dispels the myth of the starving artist and then masterfully explains twelve principles that are required to develop a successful enterprise as an artist. I have briefly summarized these principles below.

Harness the Power of Your Authentic Voice

Todd Henry steps the reader through the process of, and importance of, discovering what makes each of us unique. He calls this uniqueness the “authentic voice.” Each of us needs to devote ourselves to impacting the world with the uniqueness that only we possess.

My takeaway from this book is that we need to find a “Sherpa” mentor. A Sherpa mentor is one that doesn’t just provide passive advice but is fully vested in the path to your success. If you succeed, they succeed and, if you fail, they fail . . . just like a Sherpa and a climber.

Also, Henry provided an effective template for getting feedback on your performance and to help you define your uniqueness. I have summarized this process below:

In all my years in business and the thousands of people I have interacted with, I have only met a handful people who I would consider truly evil people. However, they were most definitely evil people who did everything in their power to leave a wake of destruction in their paths. I have not, to this day, understood why they would do the things they did other than the simple fact that they truly were evil.

In trying to come to grips with these people and determine how to handle them, I turned to Dr. Henry Cloud . . . my favorite psychologist. Although I have never met Dr. Cloud, I consider him a mentor and I have used his books and videos extensively over the years.